The Orange Box is a compilation of games brought out by Valve Corp. The collection is from their famed Half Life series of games that deals with aliens and a dystopian future where we humble humans are ruled by a brutal invasive force of aliens who hail from another dimension, far from our known reality.
The Orange Box released on October of 2007 and has since been hailed as one of the best FPS or First Person Shooters of all time, up until that year. The game and its updates are also available through Steam which released it online at around the same time. The Orange Box compilation contains within it a total of five games, which include Half Life 2, Episode One, and Episode Two, together with Portal and Team Fortress 2.
Half Life 2 features the protagonist Gordan Freeman, who used to be a scientist at Black Mesa Research Facility who was involved in dimensional science and portal navigation. The experiments there went wrong one day and opened up our world to an intermediary dimension called the Xen, the events in Half Life 2 show what happens since that world changing event took place and the alien race known simply as The Combine came knocking at our doorstep.
Episode One is a continuation of the story of Half Life 2 after the escape from City 17, the place where the Combine settled on earth. The story revolves around Freeman and Alex Vince, who he met in the events culminating in Half Life 2. She is the daughter of Eli Vance, the leader of the resistance comprising of humans who wish to expel the Combine from the earth and reclaim the planet.
Episode Two continues from where Episode One ends, outside City 17 again, where the Citadel has just exploded and sent out a message to the Combine home world that reinforcements are needed. What the humans find out because of Freeman and Alex is that the Citadel has also opened a portal connecting the two worlds and the portal is expanding, eventually becoming big enough to allow for a massive Combine fleet to enter the atmosphere of earth and take it over. Alex has smuggled some data from the Citadel before it blew up and discovered that it contains encrypted codes for closing the portal.
Valve has a history of great storytelling skills by way of their games and this is seen even in their Puzzle game called Portal. The game involves creating individual portals to travel within and solve physical space-time puzzles that could not be possible without the revolutionary Portal Gun, all for a piece of yummy cake of course.
The Orange Box has a PEGI rating of 16 and is designed for the PC. Team Fortress 2 is a purely multiplayer based game that is engaging and adrenaline pumping at its full potential. All the games featured in the Orange Box have single and multiplayer modes which means it will provide for hours upon hours of entertainment for hardcore and casual gamers alike.
Features:
Five Games, One Box - The Orange Box is the ultimate collection of innovative action games for the PC, and an amazing introduction to the Half-Life series for PC gamers.
Epic Storyline - Half-Life 2: Episode Two takes you deeper into one of the best-known stories in gaming, following the desperate struggle of Gordon Freeman against the mysterious Combine. In this episode, you must leave the confines of City 17 for the first time and face even greater dangers beyond the city walls.
Redefining Action - Portal delivers an innovative new action gaming experience. Arming you with a portal gun that lets you create portals from one location to another with the press of a button, Portal will forever change the way that you interact with your environment.
World-Class Multiplayer - Team Fortress 2 is the sequel to granddaddy of role-based multiplayer action games. Featuring nine distinct roles - Heavy, Spy, Scout, Demoman, Engineer, Medic, Sniper, Soldier, and Pyro—Team Fortress 2 is one of this year's most anticipated multiplayer games for any platform.
